[NorthEssexsmallholding]

my hayfever has been terrible the last few days, always reaches a peak in June/July, not quite sure what makes it worse now, maybe the grass pollen.

I take the allergy tablets but they dont do much, anyone else unfortunate enough to have hayfever and how do you treat it?

Heard about eating local honey as a remedy but not tried this method.

[ellisr]

I eat local honey and yes it does help, it isn't a miracle cure but makes a difference. If I am working outside a little smear of vasaline inside the nostrel helps as well but does take some getting used to

[little blue]

yes, I get it ... some years worse than others.
Since having the goats & therefore dealing with proper hay (!) I take prescribed Loratadine (I think thats what its called) tablets, eyedrops & a nasal spray (YUK!  hate it but its good stuff!)

local honey is great - my mum buys it for me, expensive stuff.
  
I start quite early - tree pollen, with really sore & itchy eyes (they feel worse than they ever look) and then get the annoying "itch inside the head" that you can't quite shift! and so it goes on....

Out of everything, the eye drops are best for me.
I also spend most of my time outside, so exposure to all kind of pollen might help over time

[Greenerlife]

Yep - I have hay fever for at least six months in the year - take Piriton when it gets unbearable.  i find the most immediate control is to have hot drinks.  bought some hayfever tea from Neals Yard which seems to do the trick, although my home made rosehip tea does the same thing, and I started beekeeping spexifically to help with it!  I get very congested with sore throats and that horrible feeling that there is a hair on the roof of your mouth all the time!  i hate that.

[darkbrowneggs]

Try Allium Cepa 30  Linky

All the best
Sue

[Bionic]

I found that over the counter remedies didn't do much for me. Now I have prescribed medecine called Telfast. All I know it contains fexofenadine. About 30 mins after taking i tablert I am hayfever free for the day.
Its definitely worth talking to your doctor if you haven't already.
Sally

[mab]

I've had hayfever since I was 13; don't seem to get it as bad as I used to.

I still have to use an inhaler when it triggers asthma but for the usual symptoms I find that it's better to use eyedrops & nasal spray at the first sign of symptoms - the less you let it develop the easier it is to control.

Don't rub your eyes - at all, and don't sneeze - I find that sneezing makes it worse for me. A few years back I cracked a couple of ribs in the spring; I learned to suppress my sneezes very quickly after that (If you've ever had cracked ribs and sneezed, you'll know what I mean  ).

if It's getting bad I take an antihistamine tablet - doctors used to recommend taking antihistamines every day, but I found that if I did that, they lost their effectiveness after a week or two.

mab

[Anke]

Eating local honey only helps (possibly) if you are allergic to any of the flower pollen that the bees collect - can't see it doing much for grass and most tree pollen allergies. (I am a beekeeper, and if I thought it was true I would probably sell a lot more honey!)

I have grass and tree pollen allergy, and find that if I take my one-a-day Cetirizine Hydrochloride (I think it is the same as Pyriteze, just the generic form) I am usually ok, on bad days I "supplement" with Chlorphenamine Maleate (Pyriton as was). Also eye drops needed sometimes. All only necessary from mid/end May to July, fortunately, although late-cut hay makes me sneeze in mid-winter too!

Does anyone else find that with these antihistamines they are really knackered all the time? My caffeine consumption shoots up when I take them!

Now that prescriptions are free in Scotland it may be worth me trying to get a prescription, but I think I have it under control as it is.

[plumseverywhere]

Possibly a daft question..linked in with the local honey theory - if someone with goats drinks their own goats milk from said animals who have eaten hay/local grass etc can this help with hayfever?
My husband's hayfever has really improved since we've had our own goats, his asthma is also better (although he's still on his regular inhaler, we can't remember the last time he took his ventolin for acute symptoms..

[sabrina]

Myself and my OH suffer, starts in Febuary when the Willow trees come into bloom. Worse time for me is June/July when the farms are making hay or silage. September which is barley time. I steam myself a lot as none of the pills work. 

[Sandy]

I am not sure what I get but used to be very bad when I lived and worked in the midlands, always unny eyes and bunged up feeling durring the summer, if I drove with windows open I could not see due to watery eyes.

 I hate medication as it usualy knocks me out and makes me so sluggish... I have not found medication that suits me yet but I have not had hayfever yet this year, niether has my male dog, he gets very red eyes and looks like a devil dog. No remedy though!!

[doganjo]

I have perennial Rhinitis,  I have to take an antihistamine tablet every day for the rest of my life.  I am symptom free and am neither tired nor sluggish.  If I forget my pill in teh morning I am sneezing and crying by late afternoon.  The symptoms started suddenly on 1988 within days of moving into a rented house while we looked for one in the countryside.  We discovered afterwards the previous renter kept cats and  I had never had a cat.  My son-in-law is a GP and reckons I am allergic to cats and dogs even though the RASST tests didn't show anything up in 1988.  Since I won't be giving them up I just keep taking the tablets 

[Anke]

Re Asthma improvement: That may be just due to moving to a cleaner environment, I find my hayfever was always worse in town, and I used to get quite wheezy then as well.

But also if you do not pasteurise the goatsmilk, eat a lot of homegrown produce, eggs veg etc etc I think your body becomes much less prone to any of thwe urban diseases - I cannot remember when my kids last came down with a stomach bug for example (and half the school was off....)

[plumseverywhere]

same with mine Anke - lots of their friends have days off with coughs and colds but the children, hubby and I have never been healthier. I have to say , I'm not one of these mega-houseproud types so perhaps a little bit of dust helps build their immunity too 

[Daisy]

Well so far this year I haven't had much trouble only a small amount of eye itching, I usually take loratadine for it and use eye drops to stop my eyes itching.  Yes I find that it makes me very tired and I seem to spend most of the summer with a headache.

My son has bought me a Haylight http://fwd.channel5.com/gadgets/lumie-haylight I haven't had to use it yet